Pizy

Vlahovic, by far for me.

Meh. If we wanted a poacher or strictly penalty box striker we’d just keep Tammy since that’s all he is. We need someone who offers much more. DCL isn’t good enough for Chelsea and he isn’t scaring any of our rivals if we’re playing them.

I see you mention Calvert Lewin often here. You really think he’s good enough? I certainly don’t. I think Everton is his perfect level and he’d struggle with the weight of being at a big club as a massive money signing. He’s basically just a tap in merchant like Chicharito. That’s not even taking into account the fact that even if we were interested Everton would demand £80m or more and he sure as shit ain’t worth near that.

My guess is #1. We were probably interested and thought we could have a free run at him. But when PSG came in we never took our interest any further because we didn’t want to take part in a bidding war. We wanted him but not at a crazy price. Missing out on Hakimi is a shame because he would’ve killed it in the PL and offered a whole new dimension to our attack. But I’m not going to cry about it as long as we kick into gear and start making moves.

So not only will Hakimi not be anywhere near the 80m we were led to believe Inter demanded, but we never even actually put a bid in. 😑😑😑 Are we asleep?

Admittedly he was playing out of position as a fullback, but Kounde looked terrible for France the other day against Portugal. Everyone can have a poor game but I think he looked a bit out of his depth.

He’s going to be annoyingly effective with Penandes and Pogba feeding him between the lines. And we thought United were awarded an absurd number of pens last season? Imagine how many a quick, highly skilled wide player like Sancho will win.

He seems to occupy the same sort of spaces that Auba does. Would be a weird fit, no?

Oh, I’m certainly not worried about them. Just think they’re actually being smart. I really rate Ben White even thought like 90% of the comments I see from Arse fans on Twitter are slating him and calling him a massive waste of money. Arse will be zero threat to the very top of the league no matter who they buy. But they should be improved.

So if these strong, reputable links are to be believed we could see City sign Grealish and Kane, United sign Sancho and Varane, Arse sign Ben White and that lad from Belgium Lokonga, and Liverpool already secured that hulking CB from Leipzig. All teams making smart buys that directly address their specific weaknesses. This next season is going to be insanely tough at the top of the table. Hope we aren’t left scratching our balls and looking around like that Travolta gif at the end of the window after foolishly chasing unattainable targets all summer… 🙄

If Grealish were any other nationality he’d be a £50m player at most. £100m is utterly absurd and he’s nowhere NEAR being worth that. And I don’t even see how he improves City’s first XI much. Slightly, yes. But a transfer record for a negligible improvement?

Not panic mode. Just concerned that we have such limited options and we could very well strike out on all of them.

I just want to see some more concrete links to players so we can get an idea of where Tuchel’s thinking is. What’s the fall back option if Haaland is not possible? Lukaku ruled himself out of leaving so that’s a no-go. What’s the sort of midfielder he wants with Billy going on loan which leaves us short? The lack of real info from the usually reliable English sources is weird. We got the Haaland stuff weeks ago and it’s been since from the English press. Pretty much all of the Hakimi stuff is from the Italians. I mentioned yesterday that I’d only start getting annoyed if we saw other clubs kicking into gear. Well, it seems like Sancho is right on the verge of being a United player and Varane is a very likely signing as well. Arse are close to bringing in a couple of smart signings as well apparently. Seems like we’re being very low key and deliberate in the market.

These player + cash or player swaps never happen. People need to stop even posting these things. Seems like every transfer link for us currently is money + our deadwood that are way worse than the player they’d supposedly replace. Why would Dortmund want Tammy when they could go out and find the next gem like they always do?

If Billy is going out on loan then surely a midfielder has to be brought in. Both Kante and Kova are quite injury prone and will miss lots of games. Try to pip Juve to Locatelli?

Not a single player in world football gives a toss about what our stadium is like. Zero. Might some players be attracted by the prospect of being able to play at Anfield or the Bernabeu etc? Definitely. Will a player decide not to come to Chelsea because our stadium sucks (which it doesn’t, btw)? Hell no. A French speaking player choosing PSG over us shouldn’t be anything to slaughter our club for. He goes to a glamorous French city, will probably make double in wages than we’ve offered, and gets to basically sleepwalk to the title next season with minimal fuss. You can see why that would be attractive.

Let’s see if the Adama interest is genuine or not. I seem to be alone on this forum but I actually do think he’d be a solid option. At his best he’s literally unstoppable and has shown such form in this league just last year. As an inexpensive option I don’t think it’s the worst idea.

Let’s be real with ourselves here. Hakimi would’ve been an extreme luxury signing. He’s not a player and it’s not a position we were crying about or desperate to strengthen. It’s why a lot of people were surprised when we were first linked. This isn’t like missing out on a top striker or CM that we’re more desperate for.

Welp. That sucks. Hakimi off the table. No other wingbacks near his level to turn to so I wonder if we’ll just be sticking with RJ.

If we get to the point where some of our rivals are signing players left and right I’d start to get annoyed. But everyone else is quiet just like we are. Even moves we know with like 99% certainty like Sancho to United are dragging on. Teams that need huge investment and lots of overhaul like Arse aren’t doing anything yet. Don’t think anything significant for any English club is happening during the Euro’s.

I doubt we’re going to hear anything else about Haaland until either he’s on the verge of joining or we get rumors that we’ve moved on from him.

As amazing as Hakimi is, talk of €80m is insane. But at the same time we did spunk that much in fucking Kepa so I suppose it’s not totally unfathomable that we’d go there for Hakimi. But PSG seem much more serious and keen to do the deal than we do.

Think people are being a bit premature with their panic. If we actually start bidding on players and failing then we can get worried. So far it’s just loose rumors from B or C tier sources. When Matt Law or David Ornstein start saying that we’re struggling with our targets you’ll know we’re fucked and will panic buy some mediocre dudes near the deadline.

How would two pure #9’s in Benzema and Haaland coexist? Benzema just had a great season and even at close to 34 doesn’t look close to finished. Them signing Haaland doesn’t make much sense at this point.

Sounds like like we tentatively sniffed around Hakimi and tried to tempt Inter with one of our players but they aren’t really feeling it. PSG look to be much more serious and will stump up the cash in the end to get him. Don’t think we were ever going to spend 70-80m on a wingback. It was only a possibility for us if Alonso or Emerson was a sweetener to lower the price. Adama it is, I guess.